Snapping hip syndrome is signalled through skipping that occurs during the hip flexion and extension, sometimes with pain. It can occur amongst people who often flex the hip joint in a strenuous way, e.g. runners, athletes, people doing weightlifting, dancers, and rowers.
The snapping hip occurs when one of the soft tissue structures jumps or rubs against the bone structure. For example, the iliopsoas muscle jumps through the lesser trochanter of the femur (bone elevation on the inside of the thigh in the groin area), giving the feeling of jumping or pain in the groin area. The iliac tibial band rubs the greater trochanter of the femur (bone elevation on the outside of the thigh under the ilium plate), giving discomfort to the outside of the hip. Sometimes pain in the hip area during flexion and extension of the leg may indicate intra-articular damage, e.g. free body in the joint, damage to the cartilage, ligaments, labrum. Then an orthopedic consultation and appropriate diagnostics are necessary.
The reason for such jumps may be abnormal biomechanics in the hip joint, muscular imbalance, limb asymmetry, trauma or surgery around that joint.
How to deal with it? It's best to use the help of an experienced physiotherapist, because you never know what is really the cause of jumping and pain. If you start to heal yourself, you can harm yourself, and this is better avoided...
